Challenge 9: Formatting Nice Tables

For this Challenge you will explore how to generate nice looking tables for HTML documents, by applying the skills to your Lab 9: Baby Names. There are many packages for generating tables, but I prefer the kable() function from the knitr package for simple tables and the datatable() function from the DT package for more sophisticated tables.

I would recommend you think of tables no different from the visualizations you’ve been making. We want all aspects of our tables to be clear to the reader, so the comparisons we want them to make are straightforward. Tables are also a great avenue to display creativity! In fact, there is a yearly RStudio table contest, and here is a gallery of the award winning tables!

1 Formatting Basic Tables

Use the kable() function from the kable package to create nice, basic HTML tables for every table in Lab 9.

Warning

Similar to axis labels in visualizations, every column name in a table should describe what it contains. For example, a column of n is less explanatory than Frequency of Babies.

2 Formatting Nicer Tables

There are two options for creating nicer tables: + kableExtra package + DT Package.

This part of the Challenge has two tasks:

Use either the DT or kableExtra packages to spice up at least one of your tables. Some ideas on how to “spice up” a table: change the font and / or font size, adding striping and / or cell borders to the table, creating custom formatting of columns, or allowing the user to interact with the table (e.g., filtering columns, editing cells).
Use the DT package to include an interactive preview of the data set at the beginning of your lab report.

3 Using LaTeX (Optional, but fun!)

For this portion of the Challenge, you are tasked with using $\LaTeX$ to format your regression equation in #6. Keep in mind our estimated regression equation indicates the response ($y$) is estimated with a hat ($\hat{y}$)!

$\LaTeX$, which is pronounced Lah-tech or Lay-tech, is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing. Some of the perks of using $\LaTeX$ are:

Typesetting journal articles, technical reports, books, and slide presentations
Control over large documents containing sectioning, cross-references, tables and figures
Typesetting of complex mathematical formulas
Advanced typesetting of mathematics with AMS-LaTeX
Automatic generation of bibliographies and indexes

Resources

--- title: "Challenge 9: Formatting Nice Tables" format: html: self-contained: true code-tools: true toc: true number-sections: true editor: source execute: error: true echo: true message: false warning: false --- ```{r setup} #| include: false library(tidyverse) ``` For this Challenge you will explore how to generate nice looking tables for HTML documents, by applying the skills to your [Lab 9: Baby Names](). There are many packages for generating tables, but I prefer the `kable()` function from the **knitr** package for *simple* tables and the `datatable()` function from the **DT** package for *more sophisticated* tables. I would recommend you think of tables no different from the visualizations you've been making. We want **all** aspects of our tables to be clear to the reader, so the comparisons we want them to make are straightforward. Tables are also a great avenue to display creativity! In fact, there is a yearly [RStudio table contest](https://www.rstudio.com/blog/rstudio-table-contest-2022/), and [here](https://community.rstudio.com/c/table-gallery/64) is a gallery of the award winning tables! ## Formatting Basic Tables Use the `kable()` function from the [kable package](https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/kable.html) to create nice, basic HTML tables for [**every**]{.underline} table in Lab 9. ::: callout-warning Similar to axis labels in visualizations, **every** column name in a table should describe what it contains. For example, a column of `n` is less explanatory than `Frequency of Babies`. ::: ## Formatting Nicer Tables There are two options for creating nicer tables: + [kableExtra package](https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/kableextra.html) + [DT Package](https://rstudio.github.io/DT/). This part of the Challenge has two tasks: 1. Use either the **DT** or **kableExtra** packages to spice up **at least one** of your tables. Some ideas on how to "spice up" a table: change the font and / or font size, adding striping and / or cell borders to the table, creating custom formatting of columns, or allowing the user to interact with the table (e.g., filtering columns, editing cells). 2. Use the **DT** package to include an interactive preview of the data set at the beginning of your lab report. ## Using LaTeX (Optional, but fun!) For this portion of the Challenge, you are tasked with using $\LaTeX$ to format your regression equation in #6. Keep in mind our estimated regression equation indicates the response ($y$) is estimated with a hat ($\hat{y}$)! $\LaTeX$, which is pronounced Lah-tech or Lay-tech, is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing. Some of the perks of using $\LaTeX$ are: + Typesetting journal articles, technical reports, books, and slide presentations + Control over large documents containing sectioning, cross-references, tables and figures + Typesetting of complex mathematical formulas + Advanced typesetting of mathematics with AMS-LaTeX + Automatic generation of bibliographies and indexes ::: callout-note ## Resources + [Overleaf Guide on Mathematical Expressions](https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Mathematical_expressions) + [Dr. Theobold's Repository from a LaTeX workshop](https://github.com/atheobold/IntroLaTeXLesson) :::